The amount of food produced and consumed on average by each person in the southern Africa region continues to decline, leading to persistent food insecurity among 40% of the region’s population, according to a policy discussion paper released by the Southern Africa Trust today.

The discussion paper, entitled, Who Will Feed The Poor? The Future of Food Security for Southern Africa, argues that the causes of the decline in food production include lack of access to land by small farmers, lower levels of use of inputs such as seed and fertilizer on average, ineffective markets for the inputs that go into food production and for the food that is produced, and low levels of state investment in agricultural food production, especially in support to small farmers. The paper also notes that weather instability and climate change play a key part in affecting food production.
This food insecurity situation has led to the region’s increased dependence on food imports.  However, the paper proposes that, “the growing tendency to import food from abroad, can be reversed by deliberate regional investments in the production of key imports like grain, beef and milk products and the required infrastructure and irrigation” to do this.
The policy discussion paper calls for urgent short term interventions to increase the production and consumption of food by poor people such as food and cash transfers, and subsidized seed and other inputs. It also highlights that food prices in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are extremely influenced by the global food and energy crisis with the increase in oil prices triggering shifts in the use of food for the production of agro fuels and the prices of food and land.

The paper recommends increased support for the expansion of agricultural livelihoods through small scale food production among the poor. This could be done through a new approach to national and local food self sufficiency.
The paper was researched and written for the Trust by Professor Sam Moyo of the Africa Institute for Agrarian Studies (AIAS).
The Southern Africa Trust is an independent non-profit agency that supports deeper and wider regional engagement to overcome poverty in southern Africa.

Click on the following link to read the full policy discussion paper:  
http://www.southernafricatrust.org/docs/Policy%20B%20-%20Feed%20the%20poor.pdf

For more information, contact;
Mpho Kgosidintsi
Tel: +27 11 318 1012
Mobile: +27 78 459 0152
Email: Mkgosidintsi@southernafricatrust.org